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Yahoo fires journalist after Romney joke
Friday August 31, 2012 03:05:53 PM,
RIA Novosti
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Washington: Yahoo News fired its Washington bureau chief less than 24 hours
after a live microphone caught him joking that Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney would not mind if
African-Americans died in a hurricane.
"They aren't concerned at all," David Chalian, apparently unaware
that his microphone was live, said of Romney and his wife, Ann,
during the live Internet broadcast Tuesday evening.
"They are happy to have a party with black people drowning."
The wisecrack, first reported by the conservative website
Newsbusters, was an apparent reference to the 2005 Hurricane
Katrina tragedy, which devastated the African-American communities
in New Orleans.
Chalian made the joke as Hurricane Issac barrelled ashore in
Louisiana and threatened to disrupt the Republican National
Convention in Florida.
The incident is the latest in a series of media scandals in recent
years that have sparked national discussion of journalistic
decorum against the background of America's rancorous,
hyper-partisan political landscape.
"David Chalian's statement was inappropriate and does not
represent the views of Yahoo!," the company said in a statement
Wednesday. "He has been terminated effective immediately. We have
already reached out to the Romney campaign, and we apologize to
Mitt Romney, his staff, their supporters and anyone who was
offended."
Chalian, who was hired by Yahoo last year to bolster its coverage
of the 2012 presidential campaign, took to Twitter and Facebook to
apologize for his remarks.
"I am profoundly sorry for making an inappropriate and thoughtless
joke," he wrote on his Twitter account Wednesday afternoon.
On Facebook, he added: "I was commenting on the challenge of
staging a convention during a hurricane and about campaign optics.
I have apologized to the Romney campaign, and I want to take this
opportunity to publicly apologize to Gov. and Mrs. Romney."
Attempts to reach Chalian for comment were unsuccessful Thursday.
Prominent newscaster Gwen Ifill, Chalian's former colleague at PBS
Newshour, described Chalian on Twitter Wednesday as "God's gift to
political journalism".
Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker called him one of "the best and
fairest political journalists in this business".
Former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the subject of
much media criticism and jokes herself, weighed in on the Chalian
firing Thursday as well.
Appearing on Fox News, Palin said she was "glad" he had been
fired. She accused Chalian of trying to change the context of her
quotes in a 2008 interview, and called the journalist's remarks
"horrible" and "racist".
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